Cardio Workout: Squat, Tap, and Jack

Get the most out of this workout by resting as little as possible!

Welcome to the final week of your Challenge! It's time to put together everything you've been practicing and give this week your all. If you've only been doing three rounds—this week try four or five. If you've been resting for the full 90 seconds between rounds, try cutting that to 60 seconds this week.

Your bonus today is one of the more challenging bonuses in the program: Tabata burpees. Tabata is a type of high-intensity interval training intended for burnouts (usually at the end of workouts). Even though lots of gyms offer 45 or 60 minute Tabata classes these days, originally, Tabata was only 6-7 rounds of 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest. The Tabata you'll do below lasts 4 minutes (8 rounds) and follows the same protocol: 20 seconds of burpees done with as much speed and force as you can, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Chances are, you'll feel OK after the first or second round. But as the rounds go on, 10 seconds won't be enough time to fully recover—and that's where your bonus gets challenging.

Because this bonus requires speed and strength, definitely don't skip your warm-up today. Bianca Vesco, certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor at NYSC Lab in NYC, who created this Challenge, also designed warm-ups and cool-downs for you to try. Try this three-move routine to warm-up, and finish with this five-minute cool-down.

Workout Video

Sweat along with our trainers in this quick, but effective video! Heads up: Today's video does not include the burpee burnout shown above. If you're doing the burnout yourself, simply add it on after the third circuit in the video.

The Workout

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the moves you’ll do.

Directions

Do each move below for 20 reps with little or no rest between moves. At the end of the circuit, rest for 60-90 seconds. Do the entire circuit 3-5 times, then try the Bonus.

Bonus: Tabata

Burpee

There are plenty of variations on burpees, so feel free to try your own if this isn’t the version you prefer.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, core and glutes engaged. Place hands on floor and jump feet back to come into a high plank position.

Bend arms, and drop chest so it touches the floor. Don’t think of this as a push-up, it’s more about speed than about shoulder strength.

Push up to return to a high plank position, jump feet to hands, and explode up, jumping vertically with arms stretched overhead. Land lightly on the balls of your feet and immediately repeat.

Make this easier: There are lots of ways to modify burpees. You can skip the jump, step your feet back one at a time, or drop to your knees and do a modified push-up, instead of dropping your chest to the floor.

Make this harder: Do a single-leg burpee by not letting one foot touch the floor while you hold a plank and jump vertically.